Loretta Devine Biography (3)
Her impressive list of film credits includes such films as Maya Angelou's Down in the Delta, with Alfre Woodard and Wesley Snipes; Bill Duke's Hoodlum, with Lawrence Fishburne; Martin Ritt's Stanley & Iris, with Robert DeNiro; and Richard Benjamin's Little Nikita, opposite Sidney Poitier, to name a few.
Devine received her first NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress for her performance in Forest Whitaker's Waiting to Exhale. She also starred in Penny Marshall's The Preacher's Wife, with Denzel Washington and Whitney Houston, which garnered her a second NAACP Image Award.
Her television career was launched when she was cast as Stevie Rallen, dorm director on A Different World. She then went on to star in her own show, Sugar and Spice, in 1991 for NBC. Devine went on to star in numerous television movies and miniseries including Eriq La Salle's Rebound, Clover, Don King: Only In America and Jackie's Back. She starred as Ruby Dandridge in the critically acclaimed HBO movie Introducing Dorothy Dandridge, with Halle Berry, as well as in E! Channel's first movie Best Actress and TNT's Freedom Song, opposite Danny Glover.
Presently, she is the voice of Muriel in Eddie Murphy's animated cartoon The PJ's.
A native of Houston, Texas, Devine received her undergraduate degree from the University of Houston and her Master of Fine Arts/Theatre from Brandeis University in Massachusetts. On the New York stage, she originated the roles of ‘Lorell' in the Broadway musical Dreamgirls and ‘Lillian' in Bob Fosse's Big Deal. Devine currently resides in Los Angeles.
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